Volunteer Firefighters Eligible for Free SUNY Degree

Great news for volunteer firefighters in New York: the Firemen’s Association of the State of New York, also known as FASNY, offers up to 100% tuition reimbursement at a New York community college by maintaining good grades and fulfilling service requirements in a volunteer fire company for up to 80 college credits–ultimately, an Associate’s degree.

While the sacrifices that volunteer firefighters across the state make every single day are characterized by humility, fire departments across New York are in real, critical demand to recruit steady working members. So the aim, FASNY says, is to recruit and retain men and women to fulfill this need.

This tuition reimbursement program covers all 30 SUNY community colleges.

As a bonus, the program also covers online courses taken through Empire State College, which expands students’ options because, in conjunction with Open SUNY, students can earn a college degree on their own schedule.

And the FASNY tuition reimbursement program is a perfect fit; as part of SUNY’s continued pursuit to fufill the needs to New Yorkers, 13 different colleges (mostly community colleges) offer programs centered around fire safety and prevention.

FASNY is an organization that prides itself informing, educating and training the volunteer fire service since 1872; they provide volunteer fire and emergency medical service members with the information, education and training they believe they need to succeed.

As SUNY takes aim at graduating 150,000 students per year by 2020, we are asking the State to #InvestinSUNY by enabling us to create for our campuses an Investment Fund to support the scale up of evidence-based programs known to support student success. We are also seeking an extension of NYSUNY 2020 and rational tuition. Students want a continued rational tuition policy so they can plan to finance the full, known cost of a full degree program – but they can only commit to their share if the state also does its part.

Great question Nancy. EMS make up the VAST majority of emergency calls. It would seem to me a very short step to include volunteer EMT’s, Medics and Drivers in this important benefit. PS – as the population ages the number of EMS calls is only going to go UP as time goes on. Word to the wise – Get this done like NOW.